August 31, 2021

Carson-Newman Football vs West Georgia Week One Press Conference Transcripts

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Heading into the first game of the season, Carson-Newman head coach Mike Clowney addressed the media before a Thursday night contest against West Georgia.

Clowney Opening Statement: Well, it's an exciting time. I know our kids are excited, with what happened in the spring and not being able to play games to guys coming in during the summer. The reason why they do it is to play a football game at some point and time. We've been wrestling with each other, pushing each other, but now it's time for us to stand together on the sidelines and play together.

Q1 West Georgia has not been on C-N's schedule in a decade and a half. Talk about memories of being a player when these two last met.

It was actually my first game back from injury and I remember that they were able to put a nice drive together, but we countered with a nice goal-line stand to win the football game. Played them a couple times in the playoffs and that kind of sparked us with the Ken Sparks Classic down in Rome, Georgia. So, it's good to be able to get back on the field with West Georgia again.

Q2 Familiar face for Eagles fan in David Dean when he was coaching at Valdosta State. What typifies his teams?

Naturally, David did a good job at Valdosta and was able to win a National Championship at Valdosta. His guys are always athletic, and they do a great job of recruiting athletic guys from the state of Georgia down there. His teams are also always well-coached. Offensively, we've been in some dog fights with them at Valdosta but unfortunately, they won more times than us. His teams are just always well-coached and ready, and it's always been a fun game when we've played any of Dean's teams.

Q3 You think about the preparation for this. How much is it like preparing for the unknown since there's no tape on West Georgia for the last two years?

I think the main thing that comes out of it comes back to us and doing what we can do well, not necessarily focusing on West Georgia as we do on Carson-Newman. That's been our mantra throughout fall camp. We know there are things that they do which we need to gameplan and emphasize on, but the main thing is for us to go do what we know we can and do it well.

Q4 Who surprised you throughout camp? What sticks out to you about their growth and development over the last month?

I think there were several guys. Trey has naturally continued to do a good job. The situation on the offensive line, and Ethan Marshall has done a really good job for us. Cody Sullivan was out for a little while, but he's come back and has done a great job. I can basically go through all the guys on the offensive line with the situation we've put them in, to watch them continue to learn and grow has been really fun to watch.

They've been resilient. You know, sometimes it easy to back yourself into a corner and get frustrated and down with yourself but those guys have been resilient. They battle and continue to find a way, as group, to mold themselves back together.

Q5 What has Trey done to secure the "keys" to the C-N offense after sharing time last spring?

He's been consistent and I still think there are guys there who are competing and give him a fight. Micah Young who have been here forever as he came in at QB, but we moved him to receiver and now he is back as a quarterback. Micah has done a great job of competing, but Trey has the consistency there overall.

Q6 David Dean's teams are known for being loaded of transfers. How do you prepare for the slate of new talent?

We've just been able to get some information from down that way as we have many guys who have played down that way. There are guys who are getting information from ex-players, just guys who volunteer and share information. We still have to get ready for the quarterback naturally and what he does, as well as knowing that there will be some QB runs in there as well.

Q7 They bring a lot of the same talent from the top secondary in the Gulf South in 2019. With your receiving corps and new QB, what challenges does their secondary bring?

They do a great job. They're super athletic, play a lot of man coverage, get in your face and try to make you throw quickly. They're talented enough to cover for that amount of time. The biggest thing we challenge our guys with is to get off of guys and be able to run to try and find open spaces in the defense. The biggest thing we have to do is compete.

Q8 First home game as head coach of this program. What kind of emotions and feelings has this brought now that it is actually happening? Feelings on fans in the stands?

It's not just me but I think our kids are excited about playing at home. Been a while since they've been here so I think that's something super exciting for them. For me, I'm just ready to get to the game so I can play and catch football and I'm ready to see our kids play.

Having fans in the stands is exciting. We had a meeting and to see the amount of impact this has on so many people on campus. We go out and we work everyday and for us, it's about making kids better. It does matter to so many people on campus and it gives them an opportunity to see the hard work our kids have put and for us to display something for the fans.

-CN-